Banning caps, sunglasses in malls “crazy idea” -lawmaker

Banning the use of caps and sunglasses inside malls only highlights the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s indolence and inefficiency, a lawmaker said on Friday.

Following the recent robbery incident inside a mall in Quezon City, Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares said that such order will just make the public suffer from the PNP’s inability to stop crime syndicates from robbing inside malls.

“PNP is not just corrupt, but lazy too,” Colmenares said. “[They] failed to stop criminal syndicates like the Martilyo gang because of corruption and inefficiency in the PNP. Because of their failure to stop the gang from robbing malls for many years now, they are making the public suffer for their corruption and inefficiency by prohibiting the wearing of caps.”

The lawmaker said that such order violates the people’s basic right to expression.

“When we allow them to do this, we are simply accepting their laziness and corruption. We should fight this violation to our rights before it gets worse.”

On Monday, the PNP banned the wearing of caps and sunglasses inside shopping malls to stop criminals from hiding their identities from security cameras, a week after the Martilyo gang attacked and robbed a jewelry store in a popular mall in Quezon City.

The order followed the PNP’s prohibition of selling hammers inside malls to prevent other similar attacks.

Meanwhile, Colmenares also said that National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Carmelo Valmoria should cite a law where the said order came from and if not he should be relieved from service for the “horrible and crazy idea.”

“Malacañang should make public its position on this insane proposal. The silence of Pres. Aquino on this issue shows his lack of concern over the acts of his subordinates and his shallow understanding of constitutional rights. This is a dangerous attitude for a president of a country,” Colmenares said. JHOANNA BALLARAN